Audrain County, Missouri - Chapter with an unread heading (no. 21 of those read), 1884

The Press, Public Schools And Post-Offices

History of Printing and First Newspapers - Mexico Weekly Ledger - Early Papers of Callaway County - Biographical Sketch of John B. Williams - His Funeral - Audrain County Banner - Audrain County Signal - Audrain County Beacon - Mexico Ledger - Intelligencer - Agriculturalist - Audrain Expositor - Messen¬ ger - Mexico Union - Audrain County Press - Mexico Press - What Correspon¬ dent of Industrial World Said - Yandalia Leader - The Argus - Laddonia Enter¬ prise - Public Schools - Post-Offices.

The press, the great luminary of liberty, is the handmaid of pro¬ gress. It heralds its doings and makes known its discoveries. It is its advance courier, whose coming is eagerly looked for and whose arrival is hailed with joy, as it brings tidings of its latest achievements. The press prepares the way and calls mankind to witness the approach¬ ing procession of the triumphal car of progress as it passes on down through the vale of the future. When the car of progress stops the press will cease, and the intellectual and mental world will go down in darkness. The press is progress, and progress the press. So inti¬ mately are thev related, and their interests interwoven, that one cannot exist without the other. Progress made no advancement against the strong tides of ignorance and vice in the barbaric past until it called to its aid the press. In it is found its greatest discovery, its most valuable aid, and the true philosopher's stone.

The history of this great industry dates back to the fifteenth cen¬ tury. Its discovery and subsequent utility resulted from the follow¬ ing causes in the following manner : Laurentius Coster, a native of Haerlem, Holland, while rambling through the forest contiguous to his native city, carved some letters on the bark of a birch tree. Drowsy from the relaxation of a holiday, he wrapped his carvings in a piece of paper and lay down to sleep. While men sleep progress moves, and Coster awoke to discover a phenomenon, to him simple, strange and suggestive. Dampened by the atmospheric moisture, the paper wrapped about his handiwork had taken an impression from them, and the surprised burgher saw on the paper an inverted image of what he had engraved on the bark. The phenomenon was suggestive, because it led to experiments that resulted in establishing a printing office, the first of its kind in the old Dutch town. In this office John Gutenburg served a faithful and appreciative apprenticeship, and from it, at the death of his master, absconded during a Christmas festival, tak¬ ing with him a considerable portion of the type and apparatus. Gutenburg settled in Mentz, where he won the friendship and partnership of John Faust, a man of sufficient means to place the enterprise on a secure financial basis. Several years later the partnership was dis¬ solved because of a misunderstanding. Gutenburg then formed a partnership with a younger brother, who had set up an office at Strasburg, but had not been successful, and becoming involved in law suits, had fled from that city to join his brother at Mentz. These brothers were the first to use metal types. Faust, after his disso¬ lution with Gutenburg, took into partnership Peter Schoeffer, his ser¬ vant, and a most ingenious printer. Schoeffer privately cut matrices for the whole alphabet. Faust was so pleased that he gave Schoeffer his only daughter in marriage. These are the great names in the early history of printing, and each is worthy of special honor.

Coster's discovery of wood blocks or plates, on which the page to be printed was engraved, was made sometime between 1440 and 1450, and Schoeffer's improvement - casting the type by means of matrices - was made about 1456. For a long time printing was dependent upon most clumsy apparatus. The earliest press had a contrivance for running the forms under the point of pressure by means of a screw. When the pressure was applied the screw was loosened, the form with¬ drawn and the sheet removed. Improvements were made upon these crude beginnings from time to time, until the hand-press now in use is a model of simplicity, durability and execution. In 1814, steam was first applied to cylinder presses by Frederick Kong, a Saxon genius, and the subsequent progress of steam printing has been so remarkable as to almost justify a belief in its absolute perfection. In¬ deed, to appreciate the improvement in presses alone, one ought to be privileged to stand awhile by the pressman who operated the clumsy machine of Gutenberg, and then he should step into one of the wellappointed modern printing offices of our larger cities, where he could notice the roll of dampened paper entering the great power presses, a continuous sheet, and issuing therefrom as newspapers, ready for the carrier or express. The Romans, in the times of the emperors, had periodicals, notices of passing events, compiled and distributed. These daily events were the newspapers of that age. In 1536, the

In 1663, the Public Intelligencer was published in London, and is credited with being the first English paper to attempt the dissemina¬ tion of general information. The first American newspaper was the Boston News-Letter, whose first issue was made April 24, 1704. It was a half-sheet, twelve inches by eight, with two columns to the page. John Campbell, the postmaster, was the publisher. The Boston Ga¬ zette made its first appearance December 21, 1719, and the American Weeldy, at Philadelphia, December 22, 1719. In 1776 the number of newspapers published in the colonies was thirty-seven ; in 1828, the number had increased to 852, and at the present time not less than 2,000 newspapers are supported by our people. Journalism, by which is meant the compiling of passing public events, for the purpose of making them more generally known and instructive, has become a powerful educator. Experience has been its only school for special training, its only text for study, its only test for theory. It is scarcely a profession, but is advancing rapidly toward that dignity. A distinct department of literature has been assigned to it. Great editors are writing autobiographies and formulating their methods and opinions; historians are rescuing from oblivion the every-day life of deceased journalists; reprints of interviews with famous journalists, touching the different phases of their profession, are deemed worthy of publi¬ cation in book form. Leading universities have contemplated the in¬ auguration of courses of study specially designed to fit men and women for the duties of the newspaper sanctum. These innovations are not untimely, since no other class of men are so powerful for good or ill as editors. More than any other class they form public opinion while expressing it, for most men but echo the sentiments of favorite journalists. Even statesmen, ministers and learned professors not unfrequently get their best thoughts and ideas from the papers they read.

The first newspaper that was published in Audrain county, was the Mexico Weekly Ledger, which was established in the fall of 1857, by John B. Williams. Mr. Williams was so prominently connected with the press of Callaway county, Mo., that we shall here reproduce what is said of him in the history of that county : "In 1845 Duncan & Goggin started the Fulton lelegraph, which was issued under that name until 1850, when it was purchased by John B. Williams, who changed the name of the paper to the Missouri Telegraph. Mr. Williams continued to edit and publish the paper until 1857, when he moved to Mexico, Missouri. While there he established the Mexico Weekly Ledger , and ran it until 1859, when he returned to Fulton, and became interested in the Telegraph again, the name of the firm being Williams & Turner. From 1850 to 1860 the Telegraph was owned by several different firms. Among these were Williams & Turner, Williams & Provines and Williams & McPheeters. Mr. Williams continued his connection with the Telegraph from 1850 until his death, which occurred on the 6th of April, 1882, covering a period of thirty years, leaving out the two years that he was in Mexico."

John B. Williams

To many of the home readers of the Telegraph, who from month to month for a year or more have marked the insidious advances of disease and of death, the above announcement will be no surprise; but to thousands of friends and acquaintances in distant parts of the State, the intelligence will come unexpectedly, and we doubt not, with a pang of sorrow.

At last, after a long and fearful struggle with disease, John BWilliams, editor and proprietor of this paper, has succumbed, as it will finally be the lot of all his readers and patrons, to the grim reaper, leaving family and friends and the transitory concerns of earth behind.

John B. Williams was born in Boone county, Missouri, September 24, 1822, and at an early age was apprenticed, with a brother, Younger J. Williams, to the printing business, in the old Columbia Patriot office, Frederick A. Hamilton, proprietor, and later completed his apprenticeship under William T. B. Sanford and Thomas Miller, successors of Mr. Hamilton.

In December, 1842, Col. Switzler, the present editor of the Statesman, and Younger J. Williams - Col. Thomas Miller having died on his way to New Mexico - became proprietors of the Patriot office, the subject of this sketch remaining in the office as a journey¬ man printer.

In J anuary, 1843, the new proprietors, Switzler & Williams, changed the name of the paper to Statesman, and sought to establish the busi¬ ness on new and more changeless foundations ; but on February 19th of that year, after a short illness of nine days, Younger J. Williams died in the nineteenth year of his age. His administrator and brotherin-law, the late Henry Keene, of Boone, sold his interest in the Statesman to John B. Williams, who, on March 24, 1843, assumed the duties and responsibilities of a copartner in the business.

man to W. F. Switzler, who thereafter became sole editor and pro¬ prietor. Soon after this he went to Liberty, where, in connection with R. H. Miller, he established the Liberty Tribune. In February, 1850, he came to Fulton, and purchased the Telegraph, which he con¬ ducted until 1857, when he went to Mexico and established the Ledger. After remaining in Mexico about two years, he returned to Fulton, again taking charge of the Telegraph , which he has owned and conducted ever since, to the day of his death.

With what fidelity the deceased has sought through all the changing scenes of a long life, in peace as well as war, in prosperity as well as in adversity, to advance the best interests of Callaway county, and of his native State, it does not become us to write. Yet without im¬ modesty, we may say that he was an enterprising and public-spirited citizen, jealous of the good name and ardently devoted to the pros¬ perity of his town and county ; kind and indulgent as a husband and father ; faithful as a friend, and honorable and prompt to his engage¬ ments as a business man.

Such a citizen, such a husband and father, such a man, such an editor will be missed in the circle in which he has so long and creditably moved. We might with propriety say more. We could not with propriety say less.

He died at his residence in this city on Thursday evening, April 6, 1882, in the sixtieth year of his age. He was married on September 13, 1847. His wife, formerly Miss Elenora, daughter of the late John G. Keene, of Boone county, and sister of Alfred, Richard L., and the late Henry Keene, and two sons, Wallace and Nathan R. Williams, survive him.

In March, 1874, under the preaching of Dr. N. L. Rice, he joined the Presbyterian church in this city, in which he has lived a consistent member ever since.

On Saturday last Rev. Dr. M. M. Fisher, of the State University, assisted by Rev. W. B. Walthall, in accordance with the dying request of the deceased, preached his funeral, taking his text from the nine¬ teenth Psalm.

Beautiful floral decorations were presented by the following ladies of Fulton : Mrs. M. K. Dunbar, Mrs. I. W. Bouiware, Mrs. W. H. Daw¬ son, Mrs. J. A. Hockaday, Mrs. Edwin Curd, Mrs. E. Dobyns, Mrs. W. H. Marquess, Mrs. Dr. Kerr, Mrs. W. W. Tuttle, Mrs. J. T. Brown, Miss Emma Howard and Miss Laura Rickenbaugh.

After the funeral services, his remains were followed by a large con¬ course of friends and relatives to the new cemetery in this city, where they were quietly laid in the silent tomb. " until about January, 1862, when the office was destroyed by fire. Mr. Hunter now resides in Lawrenceburg, Ind. He is one of the proprietors of the Lawrenceburg Register, and is also one of the directors of the Indiana State Prison.

The Audrain county Banner was established in 1859 by William H. Martin, who published it only a few months. The Audrain County Signal was the next paper that was established in Mexico. William A. Thompson commenced its publication in 1858, and continued it for two years, when he sold to Joseph A. Armistead, who after run¬ ning it about a year discontinued it.

About January, 1863, Capt. Amos Ladd and O. A. A. Gardener established the Audrain County Beacon, which was purchased in 1866 by John T. Brooks, who changed the name to the Mexico Ledger.

In October, 1868, Ira Hall, J. D. Maefarlane and Milton F. Sim¬ mons began the publication of the Audrain Expositor, which lived about one year. v

The Messenger was established by W. W. Davenport in October, 1865, who soon sold to M. F. Simmons. In September, 1876, Sim¬ mons sold to R,. M. White, who changed the politics of the paper and rechristened it Mexico Ledger, the name it now bears.

The Mexico Union was published by Harry Day in 1878, and in 1879 C. A. Keeton became its proprietor, and changed the name to Audrain County Press.

The newspapers will be in order here, for the good work they are doing to advertise the resources and advantages of the city and county and the advancement of every commendable local interest. The Intelligencer, daily and weekly, published and edited by Col. J. E. Hutton, is an old and ably managed Democratic journal of command¬ ing influence. Col. Hutton is one of the clearest, most forcible and dignified editorial writers in the State, and has for many }7ears been prominent in Democratic State politics. He is essentially a strong man, and is ably assisted in editorial work and business management by Mr. Mount.

The Ledger , founded in 1857, is published and edited by Robert M. White, who is assisted by Mr. Gill, a vigorous and accomplished writer. This is one of the most enterprising and successful journals in Central and North Missouri, and holds a strong position among the newspaper exponents of Democracy in Missouri. Mr. White is a young man of splendid energy, executive strength and business tact, by which he has achieved a brilliant success.

The Press, now in its third or fourth volume, and a strong, zealous, influential and vigorous exponent of the Greenback party and princi¬ ples, published by C. A. Keeton, one of the most successful news¬ paper managers in the country, is edited with decided ability by Messrs. Keeton and Duncan, and is one of the foremost journals of this party in Missouri. Mexico and Audrain county are alike indebted to these journals for a liberal measure of their present pros¬ perity.

Public Schools

The schools of the county are sharing with the contents of the newsboy's bundle, the title of the universities of the poor. The close observation of the working of the public schools shows that if the induction of facts be complete, it could be demonstrated that the public schools turn out more men and women better fitted for business and usefulness than most of our colleges. The freedom and liberty of the public school afford less room for the growth of effeminacy and pedantry; it educates the youth among the people, and not among a caste or class, and since the man or woman is called upon to do with a nation in which people are the only factors, the education which the public schools afford, especially when they are of the superior standard reached in this country, fit their recipients for a sphere of usefulness nearer the public heart than can be attained by private schools and academies.

The crowning glory of American institutions is the public school system ; nothing elso among American institutions is so intensely American. They are the colleges of democracy, and if this govern- ment is to remain a republic, governed by statesmen, it must be from the public schools they must be graduated. The amount of practical knowledge that the masses here receive is important beyond measure, and forms the chief factor in the problem of material prosperity ; but it is not so much the practical knowledge, which it is the ostensible mission of the public schools to impart, that makes this system the sheet anchor of our hopes. It is rather the silent, social influence which the common schools incidentally exert. It is claimed for our country that it is a land of social equality, where all have an equal chance in the race for life ; and yet there are many things which give the lie to this boasted claim of an aristocracy of manhood. Our churches are open to all, but it is clear that the best pews are occupied by the men of wealth and influence. The sightless goddess extends the scales of justice to all, but it will usually appear that there is money in the descending beam. It requires money to run for office, or, at least, it takes money to get office. The first appearance of the American citizen of to-day, however, is in the public schools. If he is a rich man's son, his classmate is the son of poverty. The seat which the one occupies is no better than that occupied by the other, and when the two are called to the blackboard, the flue clothes of the rich man's son do not keep him from going down, provided he be a drone, neither do the patches on the clothes of the poor man's son keep him down, provided he has the genius and the application to make him rise. The pampered child of fortune may purchase a diploma at many of the select schools of the land, but at the public schools it is genius and application which win. That State or nation which reaches out this helping hand to the children of want, will not lack for de¬ fenders in the time of danger, and the hundreds of thousands of dol¬ lars annually expended for the common education of children is but money loaned to the children, which they will pay back with com¬ pound interest when grown to manhood. In a common, unassuming way our schools inculcate lessons of common honesty. The boy hears his father make promises and sees him break them. Mr. Jones is promised $20 on Monday, he calls on Monday and again on Tuesday, and finally gets the $20 on Saturday. The boy goes with his father to church, and frequently gets there after the first prayer. In vain does that father teach his boy lessons of common honesty, when the boy knows that the father disappointed Jones, and never reaches the church in time. The boy soon learns at the public school that punctu¬ ality and promptness are cardinal virtues ; that to be tardy is to get a little black mark, and to be absent a day is to get a big black mark.

It has been often said that the State of Missouri has not only been indifferent to the subject of education, but that she has been hostile to the cause of common schools. To prove that these are gross mis¬ representations, and that her attitude towards an interest so vital and popular does not admit of any question, it is only necessary to say that the constitutions of 1820, 1865 and 1875 make this subject of primary importance and guard the public school funds with zealous care. The fact is, the constitution of no State contains more liberal and enli^htened provisions relative to popular education than the constitution of Missouri adopted in 1875. During the past sixty-two years of her existence not a solitary line can be found upon her statute books in¬ imical to the cause of education. No political party in all her history has ever arrayed itself against free schools, and her Governors, each and all, from 1824 to the present time (1884), have been earnest ad¬ vocates of a broad and liberal system of education. As early as 1839 the State established a general school law and system.

In 1853 one-fourth of her annual revenue was dedicated to the maintenance of free schools. Her people have taxed themselves as freely for this cause as the people of any other State. With the sin¬ gle exception of Indiana, she surpasses every other State in the Union in the amount of her available and productive permanent school funds, the productive school fund of Indiana being $9,065,254.73, while that of Missouri is $8,950,805.71, the State of North Carolina ranking third. The State of Indiana levies a tax for school purposes of 16 cents on the $100 of taxable value, and does not permit a local tax exceedino; 25 cents on that amount. The State of Missouri levies a tax of 5 cents and permits a local tax of 40 cents without a vote of the people, or 65 cents in the county districts and $1 in cities and towns, by a majority vote of the tax-payers voting.

For the year ending in April, 1880, only two counties in the State reported a less rate of local taxation than the maximum allowed in Indiana, only one the amount of that maximum, and the average rate of all the counties reported was about 39 cents, or 14 cents more than the possible rate of that State. It may not be known that Missouri has a greater number of school-houses than Massachusetts, yet such is the fact. The amount she expends annually for public education is nearly double the rate on the amount of her assessed valuation, that the amount expended by the latter State is on her valuation, while

The Missouri system of education is perhaps as good as that of any other State, and is becoming more effectively enforced each succeed¬ ing year. The one great fault, or lack in the laws in reference to common schools, is the want of executive agency within the county. The State department should have positive and unequivocal supervis¬ ion over the county superintendent, and the county superintendent should have control over the school interests of the county under the direction of the State Superintendent. When this is done the people of the State will reap the full benefits that should accrue to them from the already admirable system of free schools which are now in suc¬ cessful operation throughout the State.

Mr. Farrington was succeeded in November, 1871, by Mr. J. E. Robinson, who served until April, 1873, the time of election of school commissioner having been changed from November to April.

Mr. George D. Bowman was next in order, and served one term, being succeeded by Mr. Samuel D. Ellis, 1881. Mr. Ellis died in February, 1882, and was succeeded by Mr. J. H. Hill, who filled out the unexpired term. April 3, 1883, H. A. Gass was elected for the

Enumeration

To accommodate this number of children there have been erected in the county seventy-seven school buildings ; three of these are for colored children. These are generally neat frame buildings, and have been constructed with reference to the health, comfort and conven¬ ience of both teachers and pupils. These pupils are under the care and instruction of forty-four male and sixty-seven female teachers, who are, in the main, not persons who have temporarily adopted the vocation of a teacher as a mere expedient to relieve present wants.

and with no ultimate aim to continue teaching, but, who have chosen their profession from choice, expecting to make a life work of it. The male teachers are paid a salary which averages $38.00 per month, and the female a salary which averages $32.00 per month. We hope the day is not far distant when Audrain county will be as liberal in the salaries of the female teachers in her public schools as Greene, Dallas and a few other counties in the State. These counties have recognized the fact that the services of the female teacher are worth just as much as the services of the male, and are accordingly paying her an equal salary.

For teachers wages, the sum of $23,092.00 was paid out during the year 1882; for fuel, $1,047.00; for repairs and rent of buildings, $871.00 ; for apparatus and incidental expenses, $877.00 ; for erection of school-houses and purchase of sites, $1,321.00; for past indebted¬ ness, $3,059.00; for library, $50.00; for salaries to district clerks, $270.00 ; amount on hand at the close of the year, $3,674.00 ; value of school property at the close of the year 1882, $54,000 ; average rate per $100 levied for school purposes, 40c.

The county has now a school fund of more than $50,000, which is rapidly increasing year by year. The schools are in a flourishing condition throughout the county, and are being liberally patronized by all classes of persons. The opposition and prejudice, with which they met a few years ago, are gradually dying out, and everybody is now a friend of the public schools.